Bad knee and all, D'Antoni expected to coach Sunday

EL SEGUNDO – Mike D'Antoni had a good time watching part of the Lakers' victory over Phoenix on Friday night on TV from behind the scenes at Staples Center with injured point guards Steve Nash and Steve Blake.

"Talkin' junk," D'Antoni said Saturday.

D'Antoni is preparing to be in his usual role on the bench as the coach Sunday night for the Lakers' game against the Houston Rockets. It will be D'Antoni's first game on the Lakers bench, and he said he will be there unless he "wakes up too tired."

D'Antoni definitely was testing his reconstructed right knee Saturday. After the Lakers practice, he met with reporters without either of his crutches. Not 10 minutes later, he begged off, saying: "I gotta go sit down."

So don't expect him to be prowling the sideline as he does when feeling 100 percent. What he wants to see most from the Lakers is energy - on offense and defense.

He already liked what he saw on TV from Pau Gasol ("Every game, he should be good all day") and Metta World Peace ("I knew he was good, but I think he can be better than I thought") in the victory over Phoenix.

Blake did not practice Saturday and is unlikely to play against the Rockets, meaning Darius Morris and Chris Duhon would go up against Houston's Jeremy Lin.

BRYANT CONFIDENT

As the Lakers move forward in trying to play faster and crisper offense under D'Antoni, one of the main adjustments will be trying to score as soon as possible.

"Try to catch the defense on their heels," Kobe Bryant said.

Bryant said he knows D'Antoni's desires "like the back of my hand" after playing against D'Antoni's teams many times.

Bryant acknowledged the Lakers are not currently programmed to "attack the clock early" - especially bolting back the other way after the opposition does score.

Bryant noted that Nash's return - with his vast experience mastering D'Antoni's style - will immediately adjust the team's mindset about hurrying up instead of wasting the first eight or nine seconds of the shot clock.

"When Steve gets back, that'll happen," Bryant said.

Nash is out at least five more games (vs. Houston, vs. Brooklyn, at Sacramento, at Memphis and at Dallas) because of a leg fracture.

Although the task was made tremendously easier by facing a Phoenix team trying to play D'Antoni's kind of pace, Bryant said the Lakers got a good start Friday night.

D'Antoni wasn't on the bench, but the Lakers generally spaced the floor well and got the open jumpers that D'Antoni's approach will produce.

Gasol was the player unguarded early on and sank five consecutive jumpers. The Suns adjusted to that and began to leave World Peace open, but he was hot, too.

"That really is his offense - for us to read each other and react to each other," Bryant said.

Bryant said the Lakers also took advantage of the sets D'Antoni installed Thursday in his first practice, although those were "nothing too complicated."